By running just 5 miles (8 km) in the whole week, you can reduce the risk of yourself getting a heart disease (which is supposed to be the number one killer in the western world) by nearly 20 percent. You already know the advantages of running. It can also help you lose weight, strengthen your muscles and bones and even slow down the aging process which means you will look and feel young all the time. Besides all other advantages, running also benefits your skin and hair. Above all, it will make you feel great.

Always aim to alternate resistance exercises with aerobic or the stamina building exercises. This will give your muscle a chance to recover from the build of the lactic acid in your body, which is a common side effect of high intensity activities such as weight lifting or sprinting. In these anaerobic activities, oxygen cannot be delivered to the muscles in time to assist with the breakdown of glycogen (the form in which glucose is stored as energy in muscles). If there is no presence of oxygen, then these glycogens breakdown produces lactic acid. It is build of this lactic acid in the muscles that causes a burning sensation in your body after you do an intense activity.

The pain eventually builds up to the point where you must rest. As soon as you stop, muscles start to use oxygen to break down the lactic acid. The more lactic acid that is built up, the more the oxygen required to break it down. This is called the oxygen debt’ and this why you pant for breath after sprinting. By alternating aerobic exercises with resistance activities you enable the muscles to disperse the lactic acid rather than accumulating it. You will then not have to stop doing strength exercises prematurely because if either fatigue or a muscle pain.

You can also train yourself to improve your recovery rate by timing each stop to allow yourself just enough time to breathe evenly and deeply before repeating the exercise. With practice this will enable you and your body to recover faster and therefore improving your stamina.

Many stamina building exercises, such using treadmills or jogging, improves the strength and endurance for only those muscles which are involved in the activity. If you thoroughly concentrate on such type of exercises only, in that case you run the risk of developing an imbalanced physique. Imagine, having powerful leg muscles and buttock muscles but at the same time having weak shoulders, chest and arms. To prevent this imbalance, make sure that exercise routines includes resistance exercises for the upper body. Alternatively, you can use stamina building equipments such as rowing or skiing machines that exercise the upper and lower body at the same time, thus providing you a balance physique.

Most of the muscles work in pairs. To create movement in one direction, let’s say like when we pick up a glass of water, one muscle in the arm will contract while the other relaxes. On the other hand, while putting the glass down, when we provide movement in an opposite direction, the muscle actions reverse. Unless both muscles of the pair are exercised evenly, imbalances can occur that can actually reduce the efficiency of the joints and increase the risk of injury. This is one of the major cause for the posture problems, leading to the problems such as persistent neck pain and backache.

You should vary the types of exercise you do so that all the muscles of the body are improved “or conditioned” evenly without actually concentrating on any particular muscle group.

Certain muscles have important roles as fixating, or stabilizing muscles. This means that there main task is to maintain the body’s position or posture while the other muscles are involved in actual physical work, such as lifting, pulling or pushing. Varying your exercises and activities will ensure that these muscles get a proper required workout, too. Strong abdominal muscles, for example, are particularly important when lifting heavy loads. They give extra protection and support to the back and help to prevent a hernia which is a condition where the intestine protrudes through a weak area of muscle.

Always keep in mind that you should never do strength exercises when you are tired. In that case, you greatly increase the risk of injury if, because of physical or mental fatigue, you are not in total control during an exercise or you are not concentrating on doing the exercise correctly. Also remember that exercise is not to be taken lightly or jokingly. Poor exercise techniques is likely to put excessive strain on muscles, joints and connective tissues that are yet not prepared or strong enough to cope with it.

Building strength involves working your muscles against some degree of resistance, such as lifting a weight. But it isn’t just sufficient to lift a weight only once, instead, you need to work the muscles to their maximum capacity, and this does mean performing each movement several times, or in other words, repetitions. This is known as challenging the muscles. By raising the weight or the number of repetition, you actually increase the challenge.

Weight lifting isn’t the only form of resistance training. In fact, every time you sit down or stand up, you work by carrying your body weight against gravity. Other examples include tensile resistance, such as the pull you feel walking in an ocean or in a deep mud.

Water offers considerable resistance and swimming is an ideal form of strength exercise as well as improving stamina.

Although muscles grow larger in response to strength training, it doesn’t mean that you will gain a body builder’s physique, which in fact takes many hours of specialized training and dedicated effort. You will however, be helping yourself to a fitter, stronger body with firmer muscles and less body fat.

Keep your body ready for action and also prepared for strenuous or weighty tasks by regularly exerting your muscles. Strength and endurance training not only tones and conditions your muscles, but it also improves your fitness level.

Strength is the ability to lift, lower, push or carry an object of such mass, weight or resistance that the effort involved can only be sustained for a short time. For example, you need muscular strength to lift a heavy suitcase into the boot of a car, or to unscrew the tight lid of a jar or to push a piano.

Endurance, on the other hand, can be considered as the ability to sustain a level of activity for extended periods, such as carrying heavy shopping home or digging the garden. Improving muscular strength and endurance will provide important benefits to both your health and your quality of life.

On average, men and women are at their strongest when at the age of 30. After that, muscle mass and strength in the body, tend to goes into a steady decline unless people do something about it and make strength exercises an important part of their lives.

Regular resistance exercises can reduce and even reverse the steady decline in strength with age; no matter how old or unfit you are when you start.

As per the scientists at John Hopkins University at United States of America, an older adult who has been doing strength exercises for more than 15 years are as strong as or stronger than 20 years old guy who has been inactive. Studies conducted at a nursing home showed that even 80 and 90 years olds could double their leg muscle strength and improve daily activity levels by 35 percent after just 10 weeks of strength exercises. Just as aerobic exercises boost the heart and lungs, so strength exercises build up muscles. Unless muscle is regularly used, its tone diminishes and it becomes weaker. Unfit muscles always tire easily, and are prone to injury and limit the amount of activity your body can take. A Small amount of thought and effort can save your muscles.

Muscular endurance refers to a muscle’s ability to work repeatedly for an external period of time. Endurance is needed for tasks that do not pose much of resistance challenge but require repetitive movements for example, the repeated brush strokes required when painting a ceiling or a wall, the arm movements involved when polishing a car and the leg power used when climbing long flights of stairs, actually all require muscular endurance. The ability to maintain a good posture throughout the day, whether sitting, standing or on the move, is also dependent upon muscle endurance.

In order to build endurance, you need to do exercises that require the muscles not only to overcome moderate resistance but also to continue doing so for an extended period of time. In other words, while strength training involves heavier weights but fewer repetitions, preferably continued over 20 minutes. Before you start regular strength and endurance exercises, it might help to gauge your current level by doing the abdominal curl test (explained below) so that you can pinpoint and make a note of your improvements. Your abdominal muscles help you to maintain your posture during various physical activities and thus are good indicators of overall muscular fitness.

Abdominal Crunch Test And Abdominal Muscle Strength Rating Chart

The abdominal curl (or crunch) test is a good way to help you determine as how strong you are and also it determines your current level of muscular ability. As far as doing an abdominal curl is concerned, lie on your back with your shoulder resting on floor and your arms by your sides. After that lift your shoulders and head off the floor so that hands slide forwards towards your knees and then carefully lower your head and shoulders back to floor. Keep in mind that you have to breathe out as you curl up and breathe in as you come down. Do as many as you can in 1 minute and then compare the results with the standards given below.

In Women:

Age           Very Fit           Fit             Average          Unfit

40-50 35+ 31-35 24-30 Less Than 23

51-60 30+ 26-30 20-25 Less Than 19

60+ 25+ 21-25 15-20 Less Than 14

In Men:

Age                             Very Fit                   Fit                   Average          Unfit

40-50              39+                 35-39              29-34              Less Than 28

50-60              34+                 30-34             24-29              Less Than 23

60+                  29+                 25-29              19-24              Less Than 18

It is not hard to get slim, all you have to do is to eat right and do regular exercise. Sometime you could also cheat a little bit

What does it mean for eating right? It means eating the right food at the right time. Skipping meal is a no - no for diet. You should eat at least three meals a day. If you could, try to eat six small meals - three bigger meals and three snacks. Also you should not eat food high in oil, sugar, salt and carbohydrate. The ideal meal should include green leaf vegetable, lean meat and whole wheat grain.

Exercise is easier than you think. It is not necessary for you to sign up for the health club or buy expensive equipment. Two session of thirty minute walk can strength your heart and burn fat. If you want to loss fat fast, you will need to build muscle by doing weight. Strength training and cardio is the best combination of exercise.

At last, if you have weak will to eat health and exercise regularly, you can get some extra help. Some diet pill like lipo 6 can help you burn fat fast. Lipo 6 is one of the most effective diet pills I have ever seen on the market. This personal tried lipo 6 himself and successfully loss some weight.

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